UNCW women's team falls in second-half collapse

In a season marked by frustration, things went from bad to worse Sunday for the UNC-Wilmington women’s basketball team as the Seahawks blew a 15-point lead in a 62-52 home loss to Northeastern.

By Tim HowerStarNews Correspondent

In a season marked by frustration, things went from bad to worse Sunday for the UNC-Wilmington women’s basketball team as the Seahawks blew a 15-point lead in a 62-52 home loss to Northeastern.“It was definitely a tale of two halves today,” UNCW coach Ann Hancock said. “We came out in the first half defensively on fire and got off to a great start; and in the second half went totally cold.”The Seahawks (6-12, 1-6 CAA) dropped their fourth consecutive game, but this one hurts the worst by far.Northeastern entered the game on a four-game losing streak and was also 1-5 in the league. They played with a purpose, however, and used a 23-2 run in the second half to earn the win.Ann Hancock refused to call it a must-win game, but the Seahawks clearly need a win soon.“I think it was important for confidence sake and momentum,” Hancock said. “Wherever you are in the conference standings you need to be able to win at home.“We talked about where we go from here. We talked about the Jets and how they started 4-6 and they are one game away from the Super Bowl. You have to keep working hard and we still have two-thirds of the conference season left to go.”UNCW, which returned all five starters from last year’s fifth-place team, jumped out a 15-0 lead when freshman Mya Levels hit a short jumper four and a half minutes into the game.The Huskies (7-11, 2-5) finally got on the board with a 3-pointer with 11:20 left before both teams went cold.The Seahawks went 11 consecutive possessions without scoring until Kelsy Reitz connected on a 3-pointer with 8:26 left to increase the lead back to 15. Northeastern chipped into the cushion and trailed 29-19 at halftime.“In the first half we stayed at 15 forever and that let them creep back into it,” Hancock said. “I think some of our defensive problems stem from when we can’t score the ball.” Greta Luksyte scored the first seven points of the game, but finished with just nine for UNCW. Frontcourt mates Brittany Blackwell and Martha White provided the only offense, scoring 14 and 12 points respectively.A pair of free throws from Kristen Hanzer early in the second half gave the Seahawks a 31-19 lead. That’s when it all fell apart.Northeastern went on a 23-2 run over the next 8:44 to take a 42-33 advantage. During that stretch, the Huskies scored on 10 of 13 possessions, while UNCW managed points on just one of 12 possessions against a packed-in zone defense.“The last couple of days in practice we were working on our zone press and our zone defense a lot and we felt like that was a key to this win was getting them to take outside shots,” Northeastern coach Daynia La-Force Mann said. “We knew they didn’t have a lot of outside shooters, so we knew we really had to pack it in and control the lane in order to win this game.” UNCW finished 6-for-25 from the field (24 percent) in the second half and 0-for-7 from 3-point range. Northeastern stretched its lead to nine following a 3-pointer from Deanna Kerkhof and a layup by Rachael Pecota on consecutive possessions with 9:13 remaining.Kerkhof, who entered the game averaging 2 points, scored nine in 19 minutes. Pecota added 11 rebounds, eight above her average, for the Huskies. Northeastern entered the game 10th in the conference in 3-point shooting at 28 percent. They were 26-for-99 (26 percent) in their past five games, but looked solid against UNCW, connecting on 10 and shooting 39 percent.“When you make shots the game is a whole lot easier,” La-Force Mann said. “We had great spacing and got the ball inside and it was kicked back out.”It marked the fourth home game in a row opponents have shot over 38 from beyond the arc against the Seahawks.

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